Western cyclone., 1887-05-26
ENGLISH NAMES.
rhe Distortion to Which Their PrOnun.
citation Is Subjected.

citation Is subjected
Look merely at the pronunciation OF
English names-the names OF families,
towns. or rivers; if one pronounced them
as thcv arc spelled, one would no more
be understood than in prOnOuncing Welsh
OF Hungarian as ii is spelled, says a wr1ier
In Harpers Bazaar. Some OF these cor
ruptions OF sound of theirs are more or
less ineligible. One can see, for instance,
how rapid utteranCe would turn Charters
into Charters or knOllys into Nolcs,
Chichester into Chidster, AlmOndSDury
into Amsbry, Bcauchief into Beecmt'
Mainwaring into Mannering, HalioughtOn
into Horton, St Legcr into Selllngcr, st.
Maur into Semer. Anstruther into Anster.
or Skirlington into Skeleton. And again,
one can understand how the thick tongue
of the clodhopper has turned York into
YOrrlCk, and how, from habit or choice,
the more delicate enunCiatiOn has adopted
many such; has turned Iwlckenham INTO
Twittnum, Bracegirdle into BTc>kittlc, even
Alne into Orn. Eardswick into 1ardsick,
Mary lie bone into MarrOwbOne, St.
Ebbs into Stabbs, Kidderminster
into Kiddv. or sacred GrassmCrc intoAjurs-
mer. Portished into Pos>et. SaltIlcetby into
Sollaby, FoX-le IIcnning into FoNnailin,
Durham into Dorm. Hutton into lutton,
and SO on intcyminably Still further, II
is not difficult to understand the local pro
nunCiatiOn of various words once foreign.
whether Danish, or Norman, or Welsh. or
monkish Latin in their origin, rs that
which ont Of RieyaulX makes Rivers,
Bccver out of Bclyoir. out Of Magdalen
Maud!in, Pomfrct out of POntretaCt.
Lightning g-in-thc- Morning out Of Taught
cn-cn-lc- Northern, Grascdy ont OF Grace
Dieu, IIossmoncy out of Hurst MOnceaux,
ROsengatc out of BOsanquet Dumaric out
of Dumarcsque, Dcell out OF Dalziel,
StroIn out Of Strachan and HEIRLOOM out
Of ColQuhCun. 1t is easy also to see that
certain names should havca pronunciation
of their own as having come straight from
another tongue Thus it suits the Welsh
words and others: it fits LlangOllen, in
Denbighshire TO be called Thlangothlcn,
and GIyndyfWytlry, in Wales, to be called
Gindowdry, while Gre Fydd becomes
quite naturally Griffith, and various Scotch
and French names keep some OF their
original twang.
But what law or speech is il that by any
stretch Of thick tongue Ordull ear can turn
PyCn into PrOgoWn, Duls Coppice into
DOOcups, ChurehdOWn into ChOzum, En-
twistlc into Tinsel, Ilkiey into Eethla,
GlencOin into Lenkeryin. Aycliff into
Yacklcy, Birmingham and CresSingham
into Brummagcn and Crissengum, Ashton
undcr,Lyne into Acshin. Worthen into
ROotum, Altrincham into Truchm, Doom
into Orn, Hugenden into Hitchcnden. Mid
dlcthOTpe into Thellhrup, Macclesteld into
Maxlt, Woodfardisworthy into Orlsery,
Drayton into Dratn Cairnsin into Keys,
Pampisford into Panza, and Sawbridge-
worth into Sapza? Yet we can become
SO used to all these singular lapses as to
feel little surprise when we discover that
Nuneaton is to be pronounced EeatOn, and
Kirkheaton is TO be pronounced Yeat0n
also, that ST. Nc0ts is Sheets in Cornwall
and Shotes in IIuntingdOnShire, that Bris-
lingtOn is Barstnn, that CholmondcstOn is
CAumston, that B0bbingworth is Buy
vingcr, that AcOmb is Yaccam that North
rook-End is Nobacken, that Brighthem-
stone is Brytun, that Ravenstonedalc is
Rissendale, that Kenilworth is Killing
worth, that ST. Jelly is Stevcngelly, that
Stoughton is Stretun, Hepperholme is Hip
pun, Oakhampton is Darlington, Wcmyss
is Wecms, Ruthven is Riven, and LeyesOn,
Cover is Lewson Gore.